Some of us have kicked the tires of SC flight models since, well, since before SC had a FM. CIG’s announcement that nav mode will die was welcome news.
John Pritchett, the first person to fly the Constellation in game, developed CIG’s first Intelligent Flight Control System(IFCS). Generally referred to as a Flight Model(FM). At the time (SC 2.x) the Arena Commander(AC) module of Star Citizen was pretty much all Star Citizen had to offer.
PVP citizens loved it!
After SC’s big bang, after the verse popped into existence, the FM needed a faster way to travel larger distances. Initially this was John’s cruise mode which allowed you access to essentially Mach 3 velocities along with quantum jumps. That morphed into a much hyped Nav Mode in the Master Modes FM.
Nav mode will die, will gaslighting?
Yogi sightings have been reported on multiple Discord servers across the verse. Nice to see the community outreach. The hopium for the Master Modes love by the backers never materialized. Outreach could help smooth over the political headwinds generated by the marketing and release of Master Modes.
I suspect the butthurt of missing last years’ CitizenCon was a hard pill to swallow.
Yogi is looking for pilots who know how to show the proper level of respect. That they won’t flood Spectrum with negative press while testing his latest updates. Updates that could be years away.
Yogi doesn’t acknowledge that many citizens have trained on the FM for nearly a decade. Certainly longer than Yogi has been working for CIG on the FM. The political headwinds Master Modes faced on Spectrum was a bit more than a few bad apples. Many of us have put in thousands of hours.
If Yogi is correct in his assessment that they have already thought of 90% of the stuff the backers suggested, then Master Modes would not exist.
Strategic choices like Master modes can be brought to life by investors and marketing.
Perhaps more disturbing is the use of arguments from authority, one of the tools in Carl Sagan’s baloney detection kit.
Wanna be a rock star or FM engineer?
Nav mode will die hopium
Yogi graciously explains, the flight model is comprise of three parts. These three parts define CR’s traversal vision.
The space flight model
Evolving from a marketing decision to something a bit less wanky, the FM will become mode-less with emphasis placed on power management. Solutions for various 6DOF issues, as backers have suggested prior to MM will be employed. The infamous egg shaped acceleration bubble(non-spherical velocity space) has been with us for some time with mixed reviews. Using G-Safe throttles would help minimize tuning cycles by allowing more latitude in lateral accelerations. Proclamations of further improving up close cinematic(s) is unlikely as effective engagement distances are in the 500-1000m range for fighters.
Top engineers design down the middle.
Brushing aside questions concerning heavy fighters highlighted some disconcerting clueless direction. As long as lighter fighters can orbit a heavy fighter, the heavy fighter is doomed. One down the middle approach is to make equal translation(deflection) a fundamental property of the fighter archetype.
If a fighter 20m long can translate 20m in 1 second, then a fighter 30m long should translate 30m in 1 second. A simple scaling of accelerations taking into account the length and mass of the ship and applied only to the main thrusters.
Top Speed
Yogi’s less than fluid explanations are exemplified when he declared an end to top speeds. What he was alluding to was max velocities will no longer be hard coded(static) but dynamically computed by applying a base acceleration and modifying it taking into account variables such as the changing mass of the ship, various ship components, and customizing IFCS. A game needs top speeds, but this FM no longer has them. OK.
The atmospheric flight model
Yogi reported that the work on control surfaces had progressed nicely and that a qualified license pilot was on board. Yogi has assured us that ships will still be able to hover in atmos to varying degrees. So yeah space ship!
Can’t wait to “glide” my ship to a crash landing! A serious pilot skill. Pretty cool!
The wobble patch
A flight model flourish (hangar turbulence) was enabled in the verse and WOW! Ships are going crazy in our hangars. I suffered major damage to my black trying to land in a hangar.
We quickly learned that hangar “turbulence” is largely a graphics flourish.
While the cause of the wobble was quickly discovered, this is not a good look for a company whose explicit goal for the year is stability. CIG could use a good quality improvement program to reduce costs and improve their reputation.
The quantum experience
Seems we will be stuck with NAV mode for some time as CIG has yet to complete the quantum experience which is said to allow you to click a button and open a quantum window in the direction of your flight if you have adequate PIPS devoted to the engines. No word whether the contrived mechanic of shutting down shields for quantum travel will remain. Hopefully not, but it would be reasonable to assume that should be a power management decision left to the citizen.
Ship tuning
While it made sense to delay extensive ship tuning until the FM code refactor matured, tuning of the FM was long ago identified by backers as preferred solutions to MM’s contrived restrictions. In fact, today’s FM has seen noticeable improvements over the original release of MM based on ship tuning.
Hopefully part of the work is to develop tools that make re-tuning classes of ships much more efficient.
Christoper Blair’s Review – Nav Mode Will Die
Over the past decade I have engaged in PVP training multiple times. In the early days it was AC and Legacy Instructional Series vids. And after that more formal training in various PVP organizations and streamer channels.
While I don’t agree with the proposition that one cannot fully evaluate a FM until you fly it, I do agree whole heartily that one can judge the FM not by CIG’s claims, but with actual stick time. And that has been the problem with MM, not the political headwinds found on spectrum.
Initially my MM stick time was worse, much worse than I had expected. I wasn’t alone. Eventually CIG had to admit MM was not the final solution.
Fortunately the ongoing ship tuning, while sometimes puzzling, has smoothed out the experience.
Specifics
The elimination of tri-chording was a huge improvement. The slower velocities also helped with HITREG. Actual damage inflicted matched my local’s client depictions much more closely. Enforcing G-SAFE values was also a huge help, more so than the so called egg shaped acceleration bubbles.
Tuning of ship components is also a big plus and while still ongoing, have helped. Weapon velocities and range updates are another big improvement.
For the first time since John’s original FM I am able to better control my ship, gone are the hard to control rolls. My lead and delta merges are smoother, but quite often I merge too close impacting my weapons fire. Dodging fire is still iffy, the TVI gets lost from time to time as do my targeting pips. Of course, entering and leaving NAV mode continues to be a joke, albeit a faster joke. The loss of shields in NAV mode is still ridiculous.
Backer’s Trust
Of course the marketing of MM created a rift in backer’s trust. In my case triggered by my well developed sense of baloney detection that was birthed early on in my career with Texas Instruments.
We were encourage to question everything.
Is this FM as good as John’s original FM. Not yet. If CIG can avoid more missteps like MM, then perhaps soon(tm).
CHATGPT-5
Is there official confirmation? Definitely, please see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLvVp-dEfKo
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